practical living
Just a number
It ’ s a privilege to age , but you don ’ t have to become old .
Laurie Buys interviewed by Elise Hartevelt
While you can ’ t stop birthdays from happening , you only grow old when you stop learning , Healthy Ageing Professor Laurie Buys from the Australian Catholic University says .
“ We start as children and , as we go about our lives , we go through different transitions ,” she says .
“ Older age is just another transition – yes , you might lose some things but you ’ re also bringing new aspects , such as wisdom .
“ We need to empower people to pivot so they can build on their strengths and achieve purpose and belonging .”
She says there needs to be a conversation within society about balancing dignity and risk for older people in residential aged care .
ACI : Could you tell us a bit about healthy ageing and what it means ? LB : For me , healthy ageing means meaning and purpose and belonging .
It ’ s all about having a reason to get up out of bed every day , which is your meaning and your purpose . It ’ s around also having a complexity of experiences . It ’ s having the full range of emotions and experiences , as you can have good days and bad days , easy times and hard times and success and failures , because we actually can ’ t have one aspect without the other .
Healthy ageing is also about being able to do things with others . It ’ s about having connectedness and interconnectedness , being part of the team or a family , or a part of the group . And finally , it ’ s also being able to affect choices . So , the ability to have choices and to actually make those choices is a key part of being able to age well and to age healthily .
How can aged care homes support healthy ageing for their residents ? I think we have to have a conversation about , what is the purpose of residential
“ We do have to
balance care and safety with continuing to live our lives .
aged care or aged care or support for older people ? If the actual purpose of support for older people is just to care for them , then we might go down the track of just delivering services , and that can take us just down to the delivery of whatever people need .
But if we have a think about what people throughout their whole lives bring to society , we can value people and their ability to continue to contribute to society in different ways and actually enable them to have meaning and purpose .
When we ’ re providing residential aged care or aged care services , what we ’ re doing is actually providing support to enable them to continue to engage in a community , to continue to do their valued roles and continue to be part of this vibrant community that we have .
If we value people at all stages of their lives , what infrastructure do we develop as a community to enable people to stay
24 agedcareinsite . com . au